My local The New Grand International Food : Meat Rabbits

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Yeah, I think HEB is closer to $7/lb also. I rember looking back 10 years ago when I had rabbits, HEB was about $5/lb. Only having one doe, the feed prices made our bunnies cost about the same prices to raise.

You have to do the most good for the most. You must remember that a few won't make it. Don't be ashamed to shed a tear for the ones lost along the way, we will not hold it against you. Just remember "the herd goes on".

that's good, I think rabbit would become more popular if the price was not so high.I have usually raised rabbits [for our table] on scraps, roots, kale, weeds, hay, and garden waste. So rabbit has always been the "cheapest" way to provide meat for us...

Five dollars a pound sounds very high for home-raised rabbit meat. When I fed rabbits a mainly pellet diet (2005-2007), the meat worked out to $1.50 a pound. When I transitioned the rabbits to a natural diet (a good alfalfa-and-grass hay, forage, scraps and a small amount of grain, plus trace-mineral salt block) my price per pound was about $0.75 cents. The rabbits took about 14-16 weeks to reach butchering size, but the meat was wonderful.

MaggieJ wrote:Five dollars a pound sounds very high for home-raised rabbit meat. When I fed rabbits a mainly pellet diet (2005-2007), the meat worked out to $1.50 a pound. When I transitioned the rabbits to a natural diet (a good alfalfa-and-grass hay, forage, scraps and a small amount of grain, plus trace-mineral salt block) my price per pound was about $0.75 cents. The rabbits took about 14-16 weeks to reach butchering size, but the meat was wonderful.

That's my experience also--When I last raised fryer size rabbits on pellets, the meat [butchered weight, not live weight] cost $1.50, to $1.60 / lb - [it's been a while since I bought pellets to feed growing rabbits]. But I do buy pellets in the winter time to supplement the feed for breed stock. I don't breed rabbits in late fall or winter,[I am living in town now] because the young will be raised when there is not a lot of free food available from the yard and garden...

MaggieJ wrote:Five dollars a pound sounds very high for home-raised rabbit meat.

I agree, although ours work out to a little closer to $2.50 /lb, personally. Still much cheaper than most other meats in the area, and tastier, too! But California is just more expensive than many other states... I've gotten used to that.

MaggieJ wrote:Five dollars a pound sounds very high for home-raised rabbit meat. When I fed rabbits a mainly pellet diet (2005-2007), the meat worked out to $1.50 a pound.

Well, your right. First of all my and my neighbor did not keep good records so not sure how many bags of rabbit food we bought. Also I used a cheap fishing scale to weigh some not all of our rabbits.

It was our first time raising rabbits. Cindy was sort of a sucker for keeping the food dish full, even after I told her perhaps we should try letting it run low between feedings (the rabbits were on her property so I had limited influence). We waited too long between breading our one doe. We waited too long to butcher our fryer rabbits. In the end we only had two litters with our doe. Had we continued I would hope that we would have gotten a better feed to meat radio.

You have to do the most good for the most. You must remember that a few won't make it. Don't be ashamed to shed a tear for the ones lost along the way, we will not hold it against you. Just remember "the herd goes on".

MaggieJ wrote:Five dollars a pound sounds very high for home-raised rabbit meat. When I fed rabbits a mainly pellet diet (2005-2007), the meat worked out to $1.50 a pound.

That would mean at least $3.00 today since pellets cost more than twice what I paid in 2006.

This is why I included the dates in my post, because feed costs have definitely gone up since then. But $5/pound still sounds high and I think Ghost must be correct about the overfeeding. He refers to his venture into meat rabbits as being in the past, but he didn't give the year.

Rabbit feed here has not doubled in price though. It was about $8-$9 for a 20 kg. bag (44 lb.) and it is currently just over $13. Good hay here has gone up by less than $1 a square bale (from $3 to $4) so as the backbone of a natural rabbit diet, it is still far more economical than pellets here in Southern Ontario. Small square bales are becoming harder to find, however, as more and more farmers are using only the large round bales now.

It is important to note that feed costs vary a lot from place to place, as does the availability and price of good hay. But $5/lb. still sounds high to me.

Rabbit here in Sobeys (now changed to a Freshco) can be as high as $10/lb for the skinniest little rabbit I've ever seen. I just raised my price from $4/lb to $5/lb and the lady who buys from me is happy to pay it for my big, meaty rabbits.